I received the following e-mail yesterday from Noel Flowers, the captain of the Cebu City Rugby Football Club (CCRFC):
Hello John….. I thought you might be interested to know that this Saturday will be the 2nd Visayas Ladies Touch Rugby Championship from 10 AM to 4 PM at Camp Lapu Lapu parade ground in Lahug.
Each morning after exercise, I flip open my laptop, click on the Safari web browser, and visit websites all lumped under the same theme: Sports.
I visit about two dozen. CNNSI. Fox Sports. MSNBC. Tennis.com. I read about whether Roger Federer has lost to David Nalbandian again (he has, twice). I await the fresh arrival of columns penned by my favorite scribe, Mitch Albom. I search for news about marathons—and yesterday, gazed at the sight of a bra-less Katie Holmes at the New York City Marathon.
Here in the Philippines, is there one website that stands tallest? Yes. And, best of all, it’s Made In Cebu…. PHILBOXING.
(From left) Dr. Yong Larrazabal, Donna Larrazabal, Sophia Mancao, Dr. Peter Mancao
“NEVER AGAIN!”
Those were the exact two words first uttered by Dr. Peter Mancao when I called him in New York yesterday at 7:40 p.m. (NYC time)—just four hours after he had finished running last Sunday’s 42.195-km. race called the ING New York City Marathon.
Then, he laughed. “Never again?” I checked if he was serious. “Dili na ko mo usab,” he answered. “Sakto na to!” Then again, he laughed. Joking or not, this he added in all seriousness: “It was an unbelievable experience. Painful, very painful… but really, really worth it. It was also very humbling. But the crowd, grabe… murag Sinulog!”
From Cerrone Dayo, here are a couple of photos taken at last year’s NYC Marathon…
Sen. Pia Cayetano (center) with Cerrone (2nd from left) and Lence Dayo (right most)
Cerrone and Lence Dayo, Filipinos now living in the “Big Apple,” sent me these amazing photos after watching the New York City Marathon and the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials today and yesterday. Great pictures! Recognize the first photo below?
No need to spell his name… it’s on his shirt
Dr. Peter Mancao, who’s now in America to run the New York City Marathon, just sent me an e-mail (Sunday dawn, RP time) with the following update: Hi john! greetings from new york new york!!! we just came from the U.N. where we watched the start of the continental airlines friendship run. it was awesome with the different international participants some in their native country costumes/colors.
She doped. Snorted cocaine. In the middle of Wimbledon last June, the 27-year-old Swiss Miss was routinely tested for drugs—like all athletes are—and, when the Sample “A” result came back, she was told, point-blank: You tested positive.
“Throughout my career, I have always been open and honest with you,” said Martina Hingis in a press conference three days ago. “I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous… My weapon on the tennis court is and always was one single thing: the game, the ingenuity on court. And for this style of tennis, there is only one performance enhancer – the love of the game.”
As I said, you never know. But maybe she did. You see, cocaine isn’t like steroids. No, I’ve never taken it—and never will—but based on what I’ve researched, cocaine “increases self-confidence and creates a type of euphoria” while steroids, well, we know, builds muscles as big as, say, Barry Bonds.
Did you know that in our country’s capital city, it snows? Yes. Just like in those Christmas movies or, if you’ve been to Boston or Berlin in February, a place where it’s, like the song… White Christmas? I’m not kidding. I saw it, felt it, smelled the white flakes, and slipped on slippery ice. It’s called the SM Mall of Asia.
Three weeks ago, my wife Jasmin and I brought our eight-year-old daughter Jana to Manila. Right after landing, we wasted no time in hailing a cab and zooming straight to the sixth largest mall in the world. Snow? Inside? For real? Yes. It’s called the Ice Skating Rink. And ever since we brought Jana there last year, she’s been pleading to go back. And so we did.